Colombia

[…] While the peace process significantly improved people’s lives in large parts of the country, this progress was undone by the increase in violence in parts where the state is virtually non-existent, according to the ICRC’s report on 2019.

More than 100 human rights defenders and 66 indigenous people were killed in the South American country last year, according to a UN report. Critics have slammed President Duque for not doing enough to stop the violence.

The UN human rights office, OHCHR, is “deeply troubled by the staggering number of human rights defenders killed in Colombia” last year, its spokesperson said on Tuesday.

[…] The UN envoy hailed the “invaluable work” of the Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition, spelling out that “thousands of former combatants who only a few years ago were armed with weapons of war continue to forge new lives through the opportunities provided by peace, despite many difficulties and security risks”.

At least 15 community leaders reportedly have been assassinated in the first 12 days of Colombia in an exceptional wave of violence. The vast majority of the killings took place under confusing circumstances in former territory of demobilized guerrilla group FARC in the south of the country where the state is virtually absent.

Colombian police say they have foiled an attempt to assassinate the former head of the now demobilised Farc rebels, Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri, better known as Timochenko.

Colombia’s authorities on Wednesday struggled to announce progress in the implementation of a 2016 peace deal with demobilized FARC guerrillas days amid growing pressure. President Ivan Duque met with the United Nations’ mission chief, Carlos Ruiz, and asked the UN to extend its verification mission of the peace process until after he leaves office in 2022.

Colombia’s former National Army commander General Mario Montoya, an alleged mastermind of the mass murder of civilians to fake military successes, has been called to trial. Montoya’s first day at the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) may be a breaking point in the investigation of thousands of executions of civilians who were falsely presented as combat kills.

Colombia’s war crimes tribunal has discovered a military mass grave in which more than 50 victims of extrajudicial executions could be buried, weekly Semana reported on Saturday.